I called our MIS guys today to see if they could help me with something on my MInt installation, and spoke with the guy who runs our mailserver and network. I asked him about linux and helping me configure something, and he told me that no one in the real world uses Linux any more except for Supercomputers, and heavy league coders working for Microsoft. Everyone else uses Microsoft products for the server farms, and email servers is what I got told. Now I might have a small complex in regards to a new Linux adopter but I thought that there were more Linux users out there doing lots of things. Is Linux really dead or dying, and Microsoft server software taking its place as the new standard? After all these years of trying to get a Linux distro to install and just work, I am a little apprehensive.

Good article. Well he does run the Counties mail-server and the server for all our programs, and is much more knowledgeable about computers than I am (or ever will be). But I think he is wrong, just no one where I work runs linux. Oh well, back to the salt mines.

"Linux is now the fastest growing Operating System with IDC stating that Linux market share equates to 40% of the enterprise market (IDC Worldwide and U.S. Server Forecast Update, 2015–2019). Even Microsoft, who once fought everything Linux and Open Source, recently announced that Linux instances are available on its public cloud offering Azure. Open source is becoming the go to platform for application development and the middleware & databases that Next Generation Apps (NGAs) run on."

As far as servers go… yes, Linux totally dominates the supercomputer market but it also dominates the server market, mobile devices and Linux even powers Android. (That last one might be changing, mind. It's a bit unclear with mixed messages from Google.)

Open source software development is fast become the de facto standard for industry because it allows development at a fast rate than all in house propitiatory coding and greater use and re-use of existing code. And it means no nasty backdoors so clients can trust your code.

The only place where Linux does not dominate is the office/home desktop. But even there things are changing and in ways you might not expect.

a) It is very hard to get exact numbers of the use of Linux on the desktop. I am suspicious of the oft cited 1.5% figure and contend it is vastly under estimating Linux use. Governments are now jumping to Linux and open source in general. China has produced it's own Linux distro that mirrors Windows XP. Thee are numerous other examples. A lot of countries are distrustful of Microsoft after their data slurping and pandering to the NSA and CIA. Where are they going? Open source and Linux.

b) Regardless, the future of the desktop is Linux. How? One word:

ARM.

I will explain as succinctly as I can.

ARM chips - not relying on Intel's legacy x86 instruction codes, can compile to absolute native code. Intel cannot because, although Intel translates the x86 op-codes into RISC instructions, the old X86 code which Windows and office apps use must be maintained, adding a layer of complexity which leads to slowing down the chip delivery which leads to heat and high power drain.

Intel have clawed back some efficiency in their chips but they cannot get past the x86 code barrier. But ARM has no such legacy concerns. The mobile market is now dominated by ARM and mobile devices are morphing into hybrids.

But, more, there is the Raspberry Pi! The Pi and it's numerous clones has quietly shaken the computing world. Intel chips have failed to get a hold in this new and up and coming market and Microsoft have had to abandon trying to get the bloated Windows to run on ARM based Pi's. Nobody wanted it.

What do Pi computers run? Well, there are options but generally… Linux.

A whole generation is growing up now with Linux as the OS and development platform at school and these little machines are getting faster and more powerful. Plus, these little machines can deliver faster throughput on the same clock rating on much less wattage than an x86 chip running Windows. The only reason Intel and Microsoft are dominant in the desktop market is legacy. Up until recently - you wanted an office suite? It had to be Microsoft office. This is starting to crack.

Example: I will be joining my wife in running her business at home next year - papers permitting. We will be 100% Linux. Saves us a fortune and we have no legacy obligations to Microsoft. Once company has chosen an OS and software they are pretty tightly stuck with it and, frankly, there wasn't really a choice until recently. I contend that it was only around 2010 that Linux really became usable for the average Joe… but now it's here to stay! So, we are business that has no Microsoft code running.

Nuffin. Nadda.

If we can do that on x86 boxes, what will happen with the rise of Pi?

I content that with mobile devices becoming hybrids, smartphones becoming full plug Linux machines and Raspberry Pi's growing inch by inch to become desktops… Windows is eventually going to squeezed into a niche, largely legacy market.

As it is, Linux dominates on super computer, servers, mobile devices (sans IOS; maybe) and even embedded devices and prototyping via the Raspberry P. And that's for now, leave alone the future, Microsoft and Intel are both tied to legacy x86 code and it's inherent problems are now biting it.

Linux is dead and gets only used for supercomputers (btw: why there?) in the real world? It seems, that here somebody is blind on at least 1 1/2 eyes.

Does this person have a landline connection with a router? Either he is not from the real world or he has nearly surely a Linux-driven router.
Does this person have a flat-screen TV? Most likely this has a Linux base.
Does he use a cable- or sat-receiver? Then he most likely uses Linux.
Does he use a navigation-device? (As a person from the real world he is assumed to drive a car.) Manufactures like Tom-Tom or Bosch use the penguin, the French car manufactures and some others do this also. Mercedes-Benz used in 2013 2 Ubuntu-Laptops for an automated test drive. All well-known real world manufactures.
Most likely this guy from the real world does not own a submarine, but the US Navy does and they use also Linux for them.
As a person from the real world he uses most likely a printer - and this device does probably also use Linux.
Not to speak about web-server, which are in the majority Linux-based.
And so on and so on.

As a known fact: Some people from the real world have difficulties, to recognize the reality how it is. But this does not say anything about the real world, but about people with ideological glasses on their nose.

MurphCID wrote:no one in the real world uses Linux any more except for Supercomputers, and heavy league coders working for Microsoft. Everyone else uses Microsoft products for the server farms, and email servers is what I got told.

Your MIS guy is apparently not as up-to-date in the "real world." More than a quarter of web servers run Linux. Micro$haft's Azure works with Linux. Android is a distro of Linux. I'm more inclined to believe that he's one of those people that are easily brainwashed into believing such rubbish. If everyone else uses Micro$haft for server farms, one can only imagine the cacophony that would ensue. They can't even get a smooth upgrade ironed out to Windblows 10 and the so-called "Anniversary Update."

The mail servers he is referring to are most likely Exchange servers which is why he assumed that all mail servers use Micro$haft.

Last edited by matt on Wed Aug 31, 2016 9:17 am, edited 1 time in total.

While it's true that Linux on the desktop is irrelevant his argument that server farms are populated with Windows Servers is just plain wrong. Buy some relatively cheap hardware, install Red Hat on it, buy yourself a support agreement from them and you are good to go.

While I haven't done any investigation of this his contention that Mail servers belong to Microsoft is probably true. Microsoft owns 89% of the desktop - I suspect that number is much higher in the enterprise space - so from an IT standpoint it would make sense that mail servers were probably Microsoft as well.

Please add a [SOLVED] at the end of your original subject header if your question has been answered and solved.